For example, DE 103 12 252 A1 describes a method for avoiding personal injury and property damage caused by motor vehicle doors of stopped or parked vehicles. The exterior adjacent to the motor vehicle is monitored with a camera. When a stopping procedure is identified or door unlocking is actuated, a monitoring mode is activated and an acoustic, visual or haptic warning signal is output to a vehicle passenger if a stationary or approaching object is detected that could lead to a collision with the door or the exiting vehicle passenger.
A similar approach is known from DE 10 2012 015 753 A1, which describes a method for warning a user of a motor vehicle of a hazard of the motor vehicle colliding with an object. If a collision hazard is identified, the user is warned of the collision hazard by means of an interior lighting device intended for lighting an interior of the motor vehicle. For example, a light color, a light intensity or a lighting location can be changed.
Moreover, DE 10 2010 020 811 A1 describes a door lock with a lighted inner handle for a motor vehicle. When the inner handle is actuated, sensors are activated that detect the surroundings of the motor vehicle. If a road user is identified in the surroundings, a warning of the vehicle passenger occurs. For this, a visual warning can be output by the lighted inner handle or an acoustic warning.
In the aforementioned approaches, the vehicle passenger is regularly warned taking into account an exit side. This is determined by the door that the vehicle passenger is wanting to open. The warning can however be independent of an exit side. In this case, potential risks in the entire surroundings of the motor vehicle are detected.
With motor vehicles today, the exit side for a vehicle passenger is normally determined by the seat of the vehicle passenger in the motor vehicle. Accordingly, the driver normally exits the driver's side, and the passenger exits the passenger side.
The situation is less clear for vehicle passengers in the back seat of the motor vehicle. Normally, exiting is from the adjacent door, but this is not always the case. Moreover, there is no preferred exit side for a vehicle passenger on the center seat in the back seat. It can therefore be desirable to indicate to the vehicle passenger a preferred or recommendable exit side.
The indication of an exit side will become more important with the advent of autonomous motor vehicles and so-called robot taxis. With such motor vehicles, there is normally no preferred exit side for the vehicle passengers dictated by the design of the motor vehicle.
In this context, a method is known from DE 10 2008 012 898 A1 for outputting information on leaving a motor vehicle depending on a collision hazard when leaving the motor vehicle. The method is used in particular after an accident. The information indicates the exit of the motor vehicle through which one can leave with a minimum collision hazard. The collision hazard is determined depending on dynamic and static environmental conditions. The output can be acoustic by a voice command, visual by a display, and haptic by corresponding stimulations of the vehicle passengers. It is also provided to indicate the exit by opening the doors on the side on which it is possible to leave the motor vehicle with a minimum collision hazard.